Wi-Fi cameras might be all the rage these days, but they're not so easy to install outdoors, whether in a “smart doorbell” form factor or simply tucked beneath the eaves, where you might have to drill through concrete and suffer from indadequate Wi-Fi coverage.
At CEDIA 2017, Olive & Dove (formerly Remocam) is introducing DoorCam, a new outdoor surveillance camera that installs so simply you might smack your forehead for not thinking of it first.
The product sits atop a door, with the camera facing out; the guts hang on the back side, with the two pieces connected via a thin ribbon for power and communications.
Details about the product have not been revealed — other than the fact that it dangles over the door and supports HD video — but we know that O&D's RemoBell video doorbell is powered by AA batteries and features HD video, two-way audio, night vision, PIR sensor and indoor chime. The company has an app and cloud-based recording service.
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To our knowledge, neither O&D or its predecessor has ever discussed integration with third-party smart-home products, but the original RemoCam indoor product featured IR blasters for controlling TVs, air conditioners and other IR-controlled devices.
The new DoorCam is not unlike a product we lauded from Echostar back when they had plans to launch the Sage home automation system. That camera could hang out a window, tethered by a flat cable that could be smashed in a window jamb. The cable connected to a Wi-Fi module plugged into an electrical outlet inside (image below).
In 2015 when it introduced (now defunt) plans to launch the Sage home automation system, Echostar demonstrated an outdoor camera with a thin cable that could be squashed in the window jamb.
